We've gotten a number of reports now where people are complaining about the scrollwheel animation changes we made in bug 1418822 + bug 1660933.

Here is a list of new reports:

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1679701
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1675403
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1679651

Of course these are just a few datapoints - there's probably more people out there who noticed the change and liked/didn't like it. Interesting to note that these reports were filed against FF 82, where the change would only have been observed on new profiles (i.e. somebody upgrading from pre-82 to 82 should have gotten the old values preserved by the profile migration code. So for some reason there's a set of users who seem to have (a) enough FF usage to notice the scrolling change and (b) be working on a new profile in FF 82.

The experiment that was performed produced no significant difference in retention with the old and new values, so we can't rely on that to make a proper data-driven decision here.

I don't know what the right answer here is, and it's not really my call anymore anyway. But I'm filing this bug to consider rolling back the pref changes, or at least tweaking them.

Martin, do you have an opinion on whether we should revert these changes or stay the course?

I think it would be good to look at more data points. Let's add esmyth to the discussion as he was part of the experiment.

Changes to the default the Release channel user experience must be made with care. This includes changing the current default to a previous default. After conferring with Desktop product leadership we don't feel that feedback is strong enough at this time to warrant a change. We still believe there is a need for a more holistic review, supported by UX and UR, of the scrolling experience, but that is not a priority at this time. We'll continue to monitor user feedback and telemetry and revisit this decision and prioritization of the larger initiative if needed.

+1 vote from me that scrolling should be rolled back.

Generally speaking, I think we should be using the same scrolling settings as the rest of the OS, so reverting would be bad. Beyond that, for prospecting/switchers, having a "weird" scroll experience might drive people away before users have given Firefox a real shot to replace or augment their existing browser (and I have seen a lot of feedback to that effect), so that seems like a negative, too.

(In reply to Asif Youssuff from comment #8)

Generally speaking, I think we should be using the same scrolling settings as the rest of the OS, so reverting would be bad. Beyond that, for prospecting/switchers, having a "weird" scroll experience might drive people away before users have given Firefox a real shot to replace or augment their existing browser (and I have seen a lot of feedback to that effect), so that seems like a negative, too.

Thinking that smooth scrolling wich was in Firefox for years could drive people away is a little bit curious. A lot of people liked Firefox for this scrolling that wasn't presented in chrome-like browsers.

Given the comments above, I think this bug is a wontfix. People are still free to adjust the prefs to their liking if they don't like the default behaviour. Since the migration to the new defaults was completed in FF 86 it's been in release for a while now and I'm not aware of any significant impact one way or the other.

From today 91.0a1 (2021-06-23) (64-bit) setting:
general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMinMS 200
general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMaxMS 400
doeasn't restore old scroll speed.

What else have to be set to restore od behavior?

Anyway it was something different: mousewheel.system_scroll_override.enabled
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1715513

(In reply to Kartikaya Gupta (email:kats@mozilla.staktrace.com) from comment #10)

Given the comments above, I think this bug is a wontfix. People are still free to adjust the prefs to their liking if they don't like the default behaviour. Since the migration to the new defaults was completed in FF 86 it's been in release for a while now and I'm not aware of any significant impact one way or the other.

Maybe this bug has a solution. For example, in the "MS Edge" settings, I have no "Smooth scrolling" option
did not find. This means that browser behavior without a checked option "Smooth scrolling"
should be addressed. When comparing on my 120Hz monitor, I did not find any significant differences
between "Smooth scroling" with new values and browser behavior without a checked option
"Smooth scrolling". So "Smooth scrolling" would be permanently on, but depending on
to select an option in a setting with different values.
Without the "Smooth scrolling" option checked, it would behave like other browsers,
with the check mark selected, he would behave as we are used to.